App Developers And Apple Get Sued Over User Tracking

Back on December 20, I mentioned a study that the Wall Street Journal had published that showed a lot of the popular apps on the Apple App Store were grabbing personal identifiers for people along with demographic information and passing those details on to third party advertisers without the user knowing or agreeing to share the data. The apps sharing this data were from companies both large and small.

It will come as no surprise that there were users out there that didn't appreciate being tacked without their permission have filed suit. The suit was filed in federal court in Northern California, seeks to stop the sharing of personal data without the users consent, and seeks monetary damages as well.

The suit names Apple as a defendant because it alleges that with Apple approving each and every app that it knows the data is being shared and hasn't made the app developers tell users that the data is being shared. One of the attorneys in the suit named Majed Nachawati said, "Apple knew this was an issue. They had a duty to warn consumers and at a minimum, if they intend to profit from this, they need to let people know and get their consent."